IBM Speeds Enterprise Flash Storage

"Unprecedented speed" is the key ingredient in IBM's new flash storage solutions, designed for the new world of intelligent, cloud-based business apps.

More specifically, the company expanded its flash storage portfolio "to help clients more quickly extract value from data so it can be turned into a competitive advantage."

How quickly? The new all-flash array offerings incorporate "industry-leading performance -- a minimum latency of 250μs (microsecond) -- to solve the challenge of accessing the massive amounts of data quickly for cloud-based applications and workloads."

The three new products include: FlashSystem A9000, targeting IT service providers; FlashSystem A9000R, aimed at cloud service providers; and the IBM DS8888, for enterprise-class servers.

To provide a simplified onramp for flash storage, "The FlashSystem A9000 comes fully configured, which helps drive down the cost of implementing an all-flash environment," the company said. To deliver scalable storage for cloud service providers, "The FlashSystem A9000R, with its grid architecture, provides easy scaling up to the petabyte range." Finally, with the optimized all-flash IBM DS8888 system for enterprise servers, "customer databases and data-intensive applications are accelerated resulting in improved business performance and customer satisfaction."

"The FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R both incorporate data reduction features, including pattern removal, deduplication and real-time compression, as well as IBM FlashCore technology to deliver consistent low latency performance," IBM said. "They are priced as low as $1.50 per gigabyte."

"The drastic increase in volume, velocity and variety of information is requiring businesses to rethink their approach to addressing storage needs, and they need a solution that is as fast as it is easy, if they want to be ready for the Cognitive Era," said IBM exec Greg Lotko in a statement. "IBM's flash portfolio enables businesses on their cognitive journey to derive greater value from more data in more varieties, whether on premises or in a hybrid cloud deployment."